Massively popular Twitch streamer Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek has lost 85% of his viewership after signing a multi-year exclusivity streaming deal with Microsoft platform Mixer, according to a report by live stream data analytics company Stream Metrics. While the former professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player saw a spike upon his move, not as many have stayed in the long term as loyal fans.
Shroud’s viewership decline
In third quarter 2019, Twitch held 75.6% of the market in hours watched per platform. In comparison, YouTube Gaming held 17.6%, Facebook Gaming held 3.7%, and Mixer held 3.2%.
Shroud had a live stream viewership reach of 718,000 unique viewers in late October, a number 1.62 times larger than all of Mixer’s United States audience combined. This is a factor in why the platform was so interested in the streamer. However, Shroud’s U.S. audience on Mixer was only a third the size compared to his month prior on Twitch. The decline after his transition went from 718,000 in October to 231,000 in November.
Moving from Twitch to Mixer
Furthermore, only 15% of his U.S. viewers moved along with Shroud from Twitch to Mixer. While the streamer saw decent numbers in the first few days, it started trickling down afterward. Fortunately, 47% of Shroud’s U.S. viewership on Mixer was through his prior viewership on Twitch. More than half of his U.S. viewers are also brand new to the Mixer platform, accounting for 127,000 new unique viewers that only watched his channel.
While gaining more users is the primary goal of a streamer acquisition, one would usually prefer if the viewers also consumed other content on the platform. However, with the lower content amount available on the Microsoft platform and less traffic overall, Twitch has a much bigger advantage through its discovery system.
Shroud may not see as much revenue from content monetization and brand deals due to his lower viewer count. Nevertheless, reports that Tyler “Ninja” Blevins was signed for $40 – 50 million suggest that Shroud also pocketed a sizable amount for his move, enough to retire whenever he decides to.
